Waiting
by after the sky
Summary: After worriedly waiting for a late Wall-E to return home, EVE experiences a moment that teaches her about his solitude. Wall-E/EVE. Fuzzy oneshot.


Hey everyone. So, this is my first fic in decades (okay, I'm being a little dramatic… but it's definitely my first fic in a long stretch of years), so please be gentle with me. I decided I really wanted to try my hand at a few Wall-E oneshots, so I gave this one a go. I know this idea has been used/played with before, but I really wanted to write about it, so I took a stab at my own version. Wall-E belongs to Pixar and Disney, of course, not me :).

This wasn't beta'd or anything, and like I said, it's been a while, so I apologize for anything that seems a tad amiss. Thanks for reading.

~ after the sky

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**Waiting**

EVE was starting to worry.

Wall-E certainly should have returned to the truck by now. He had left early this morning for work, fulfilling his programmed directive of gathering and compacting trash. Of course, he would always spend some time dawdling, picking out trinkets and storing them in his cooler to add to his collection, but he never took this long. His unusual lateness was cause for concern. While waiting, EVE had spent some time drifting back and forth in the truck, busying herself with random objects on the shelves while Hal impatiently watched, pacing and twitching his antennae. He, too, felt the little robot's absence—normally he'd have his snack cake to burrow into by now.

Finally, EVE couldn't take it any longer. Assuring Hal she'd be back soon, the anxious probe flew from the truck and scanned the ground for the little robot she loved.

It took a few minutes, but finally, she found him, and not too far from their home, as a matter of fact. But the reason for his lateness was apparent.

"Wall-E!" EVE sighed with relief, descending to join her companion on the ground.

"Eevah?" was Wall-E's excited, if a little confused, reply. He was spinning in dizzying circles, arms cautiously held out in front of him. EVE couldn't help but giggle as she reached out an arm and spread her fingers, capturing his little shovel hand in her own and bringing him to a sharp and bumpy stop. Wall-E whistled in surprise and lifted his opticals towards EVE's face, revealing one of them to be hanging by a cable and giving off sparks. It was broken.

EVE knew this was a fixable problem; she was just glad her loved one was safe. She blinked her eyes into half-moon smiles before taking Wall-E into her arms and lifting off to fly him home.

When they arrived back at the truck, Hal jumped in place excitedly to welcome them. Knowing Wall-E would just create a mess trying to find his pet's snack in his condition, EVE quickly retrieved a cake from the waste robot's cooler and unwrapped it, plopping it next to the cockroach. After regarding Wall-E briefly to make sure he was okay, Hal jumped into his snack with a satisfied squeak.

Using an arm to caution Wall-E to stay still, EVE approached the shelves and shuffled through them for some time before realizing the one that should have held his optical replacements was empty—he'd used them up. Her eyes frowning, the white probe turned to her companion, at a loss. "Wall-E…" she began.

Sensing the problem, Wall-E waved off her concern. "Eevah!" he called, pointing in the direction of the truck's exit and whistling. He tapped his body with one shovel hand and held his dangling optical with the other. "Waaalll-E," he added for emphasis.

Used to reading his language of limited words and gestures, EVE realized after a moment what he meant. She knew that his spare parts had been scrounged from the other deactivated Wall-E's strewn about the area. She had just never partaken in this process. Nodding, she guided Wall-E out the exit of the truck before wrapping her arms around him and taking off slowly to scan the surrounding area.

Before long, they'd found what they were looking for. Wall-E honked and pointed in the general direction of a stretch of deactivated Wall-E units (his aim was a little off, given the circumstances, but EVE was able to discern what he meant). EVE slowly descended to the ground, depositing Wall-E in front of her.

The white probe's eyes turned down sadly as she took in the view in front of her. Innumerable Wall-E's, just like her own, silent, broken, lying indifferently in the dust. The sight made her feel cold and helpless, just like she had felt when the Wall-E that she loved had lain broken in her arms, lost, unresponsive. EVE watched with utter sadness as Wall-E finally managed to approach one of his deactivated brethren and grasp an intact optical. He freed it with a practiced smoothness, hardly seeming bothered by his mirror image's lack of animation, no less by the quiet picture of death all around him. Removing his own, broken optical, Wall-E placed the new one in and waited while his eyes refocused. For a chilling moment, EVE watched as his opticals lifted to form a straight, apathetic, unexpressive gaze, just like all the other Wall-E's, just like this Wall-E when he'd first received his new chip and hadn't been… well, him. But then they drooped. He was okay. He was hers.

"Eevah!" the little robot said triumphantly, raising his arms and looking in the direction of his loved one.

EVE felt overwhelmed, which, frankly, wasn't a feeling she was used to. She felt overwhelmed by Wall-E's loneliness, by the 700 years of life he'd spent… like this. Constantly scrounging for parts off his dead brothers, unfazed by their perpetual silence, unfazed by his actions. He was simply going on, living. Alone. For 700 years.

"Eevah?" Wall-E asked cautiously, inching forward on his treads and tilting his head towards hers. She looked upset. He hated when she was upset. He would do anything in the world to make her happy.

EVE responded by suddenly coming forward and pressing her face to his. A sharp burst of electricity passed between them, causing Wall-E to joyfully shudder and shout, "Whoa!"

EVE smiled with her eyes and wrapped her arms around him once again, giving him another electrical kiss for good measure. For one moment, she'd felt his centuries of pain and solitude. And as she flew off towards the truck with her love warbling happily in tow, she was determined to make sure that their future together would make all his 700 years of waiting worthwhile.


End file.
